CRIME
Delegation to go to China
The Ministry of Justice yesterday said it would send a delegation to China tomorrow to discuss the detention of Taiwanese nationals for alleged involvement in telecom fraud in Malaysia and Kenya. Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) said the team is scheduled to leave tomorrow and return on Saturday. Personnel from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security are to meet the delegation in Zhuhai, Guangzhou Province. The two sides are to begin substantive negotiations on matters related to joint investigation and evidence collection. Chen said the delegation is to be headed by Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs Director-General Chen Wen-chi (陳文琪). It will also include officials from the Mainland Affairs Council, the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Criminal Investigation Bureau. Last month, 45 Taiwanese were deported to China from Kenya, and 32 were deported from Malaysia.
ENVIRONMENT
Oil spill cleanup completed
Cleanup of an oil spill from a container ship that ran aground on the New Taipei City shoreline was completed yesterday after two months of work, the city’s Environmental Protection Department said. All the remaining fuel in the vessel had been removed by Thursday last week, the department said. The TS Taipei ran aground on March 10 off the city’s Shimen District (石門). Battered by rough seas, the stranded vessel began breaking apart and leaking oil on March 24, creating an oil slick stretching as far as 5km. Over the past two months, 12,446 people have worked on the cleanup, with 127,039kg of debris having been removed, 377.82m3 of fuel and heavy oil pumped out of the ship, and 59.16m3 of oil cleared from the shoreline and sea surface, the department said.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese